Leica Fotos 1.3 disappoints CL owners

[ramarren]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

I understand. Not something I've ever done or will do ... I hate taking photos when walking with a group, not all that interested in walking/hiking with a group in the first place. 

I don't know that it's fair to make a generalized statement that something "disappoints CL owners" when a new feature that relies on a different technology than my camera has is released. It may have disappointed you in particular, and maybe a few other people, but WiFi operation on the CL is specific to browsing, downloading, and camera control ... it locks the camera up and consumes a good bit of power too ... I cannot imagine using it for a low power/small data application like you use Bluetooth connection technology for.

The "GPS4Cam" technology that Jaapv mentioned looks like it would do a superior job for your purposes, albeit it takes a little more effort to utilize. It piqued my interest and there's a free version with limited capability so I can try it and see whether it's worth the huge cost of $4 to buy.

[jaapv]

4 hours ago, g2van said:

When hiking more than 20km a day, it's a hiking trip over a photography one. Photographs are made fast on the go unless a something really special presents itself. If you have tried hiking with a group (just for pace while training) taking a quick snapshot will leave you 25m or more behind. Reaching for notes to write, will leave you another 25m behind. Doing this consistently over the hike will leave you way behind on pace (even though it's not a race) and even if you don't shoot incessantly (don't even shoot more than 50 shots on each 20km day hike). I've tried this on previous multi day hiking trips - it's about fast access to camera and seeing the shot way ahead of time, even getting the settings ready while walking towards the spot (yes, for landscapes) and not only just getting to a spot to wow and then pull out the camera (of course that can happen in "round the bend" situations). Also, pull out pen to record a location that's not shown at the site, say in a stream of an unnamed forest - how to know where one is without having to resort to pulling out the phone with google maps? For this hike, my phone will be on airplane mode unless really needed, no GPS, no data, no whatsapp, IG, FB.

So the idea of using GPS on FOTOs is set it and forget it. The feature is already available, just not for wifi - that was my original gripe. 

 

 

I rather doubt whether you'd get one acceptable image that way. Better leave the camera home. A smartphone would be more useful.

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[g2van]

19 hours ago, jaapv said:

I rather doubt whether you'd get one acceptable image that way. Better leave the camera home. A smartphone would be more useful.

Haha sounds like it isn't it? I've done this on a "test run" of a 4 day hike in Italy and was really glad I brought my M240 + 40/1.4 and 21/4 in a quick access bag and super tiny table tripod. No phone would have gotten most of the shots. All depends how each shoots but more importantly I believe is how early one gets ready to see/prepare the shot and I can do this while enjoying the hike, pondering + talking and all - there are much fewer distractions in the countryside.

[tommonego@gmail.com]

I have been working with the FOTOS app over the last couple of days. Last night I was waiting for a sunset with my CL on a tripod. I had my camera set to M as I am used to working with shutter speed and f-stops. When I connected the app and camera the camera would switch to P (which I never use) on FOTOS the exposure mode was listed as A (which I do use). I wanted to use my phone as a shutter release and view the image, horizontal on my phone the image was excellent. BUT I want a manual setting, don't mind adjusting the shutter speed on the phone. The EV settings worked but it wasn't what I wanted and why set the camera to P??

Tom

[ramarren]

I was using v1.3 quite a lot yesterday for a copy work job. It works better than the previous version did, mostly because of the larger display space when the iPhone is rotated horizontal. It worked flawlessly. 

Regards the exposure control settings, the app always sets the camera to Auto mode on ISO and exposure when it starts up. Just turn off auto modes by tapping the ISO, aperture, and shutter setting buttons, then tapping the red A button. At that point, the slider lets you set the values you want explicitly. 

 

[tommonego@gmail.com]

Only tried tapping the A setting will look some more, the view is much better in vertical, and a magnitude better horizontal. 

Tried the ISO-Aperture-Shutter then A seemed to go off. Camera handled as if it was in M with both the 23 Summicron and 55 7-A. Last night whenever I turned on FOTOS the camera would go to P, tried with it on A and M. Tonight everything was fine, go figure.

Tom 

[ramarren]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

What I've found occasionally with Leica FOTOs on the iPhone is that it works better if I first force-quit all the other apps and then clear the iPhone's RAM. Then everything works very smoothly when I launch FOTOs. I suspect that some apps are locking up bits of memory inconsistently and creating islands, and FOTOs isn't quite sophisticated enough in its memory management to handle all such eventualities. 

FOTOs isn't the only app that works better when I do this ..

 

[Jeffry Abt]

Interesting....how does one clear the iPhone's RAM?

[ramarren]

5 hours ago, Jeffry Abt said:

Interesting....how does one clear the iPhone's RAM?

https://www.tenorshare.com/cleanup-iphone/how-to-clear-ram-on-iphone-with-ios-11.html

Same techniques on iOS 12.

Edited July 17, 2019 by ramarren

[LocalHero1953]

6 hours ago, ramarren said:

What I've found occasionally with Leica FOTOs on the iPhone is that it works better if I first force-quit all the other apps and then clear the iPhone's RAM. Then everything works very smoothly when I launch FOTOs. I suspect that some apps are locking up bits of memory inconsistently and creating islands, and FOTOs isn't quite sophisticated enough in its memory management to handle all such eventualities. 

FOTOs isn't the only app that works better when I do this ..

 

On my android phone that didn't work (not doubting your experience with the iphone). It was only when I explicitly made my phone connect to the CL that it worked reliably - the Fotos app itself remained unreliable at initiating the connection.

[colonel]

I have used Leica FOTOS on iPhone and IPad, works fine - no issue

downloaded jpg and DNG

 

[ramarren]

7 hours ago, LocalHero1953 said:

On my android phone that didn't work (not doubting your experience with the iphone). It was only when I explicitly made my phone connect to the CL that it worked reliably - the Fotos app itself remained unreliable at initiating the connection.

I know almost nothing about Android devices or the innards of that OS. My only interaction with it is in the customized, dedicated implementation that runs my Light L16 camera. 

[pico]

I usually go to Settings, General, Shutdown

[ramarren]

Shutting down and restarting normally doesn't necessarily completely clear RAM after the restart because iOS saves the state of apps on shutdown, to the extent that it can, and resets it on startup to match what it was when shut down. The extra action of holding the Home button (or virtual home button in the case of iPhone X and iPad Pro 11/12.9 machines) forces the system to actually clear RAM completely so that apps have to reinitialize their RAM allocations when they are launched. 

This is what produces the often better RAM map without islands that come from continued use by running apps that can cause memory allocations to fail and produce poor operation on certain apps. 

[rob_w]

What is the 'virtual home button'?

 

[ramarren]

If you read the article Ilnked to above, on the iDevices that do not have a home button, there's a mechanism to supply a virtual one using the Assistive Technologies setup screen. (For some persons, gesture control is more complex than their musculature and neurology can achieve, so a simpler interface with a button press is provided by a virtual home button.)

Edited July 17, 2019 by ramarren

[rob_w]

Aha.   Was just wondering, as I have never seen a 'virtual' home button referenced before.  Did not think of using assistive technologies.

Even if you don't need assistance, there are one or two useful things buried in that capability.  I use it on my Mac to make the mouse pointer much larger (then I set the pointer to move much faster).

 

Thanks

Edited July 18, 2019 by rob_w

[ramarren]

4 hours ago, rob_w said:

Aha.   Was just wondering, as I have never seen a 'virtual' home button referenced before.  Did not think of using assistive technologies.

Even if you don't need assistance, there are one or two useful things buried in that capability.  I use it on my Mac to make the mouse pointer much larger (then I set the pointer to move much faster).

 

Thanks

Off topic, but you know about the mouse pointer "auto enlarge" so you can find it easily...? Just jiggle your finger back and forth quickly on the track pad and the mouse pointer will enlarge up to huge so you can see where it is easily and then it returns to normal size as you move it where you want. I use this all the time...!